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Judge unseals Liddy Watergate trial records

A federal judge has ordered the release of long-sealed records relating to the 1973 trial of Watergate conspirators G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord, both of whom served as officials of President Richard Nixon's re-election bid.

Chief Judge Royce Lamberth, acting on a petition from Texas A&M history professor Luke Nichter, issued an order Friday setting in motion the unsealing.

Lamberth's order (posted here) unseals all records in the case apart from grand jury records, sentencing reports relating to living individuals, and "documents reflecting the contents of illegally obtained wiretaps." The Justice Department had agreed with unsealing of the Liddy case records, aside from those three categories.

In an interview Friday, Nichter hailed the judge's decision. "The National Archives has told me they have an enormous quantity of Watergate records still sealed," the professor said. "They've told me they hope to bring these documents out of legal limbo, but you can't get them under [the Freedom of Information Act.] It takes extraordinary action by a judge to bring them out."

Nichter said he believes at least some of the sealed records relate to Alfred Baldwin, a potential witness in the Libby case who was involved in wiretapping the Democratic National Committee's Watergate office that was broken into. Prosecutors sought to put Baldwin on the stand, but third-parties—apparently those overheard in the wiretaps—managed to block his testimony.

Nichter said he sees little reason to keep the records sealed at this juncture. "A lot of folks involved in these events four decades ago are deceased. And, in light of later scandals, is it really necessary to keep all this secret?" he asked.

Lamberth also gave the Justice Department 30 days to inventory all other sealed materials in the case and to explain why those records must remain sealed.So, more disclosures seem possible, even within the categories the Justice Department wants kept sealed.

However, the judge rejected Nichter's request for a court-supervised investigation into what the professor termed breaches of grand jury secrecy by reporters for the Washington Post.

Five other men were charged in the same case as Libby and McCord, but pled guilty before the trial. They included former CIA officer and White House aide E. Howard Hunt Jr. After the 16-day trial, a jury quickly convicted McCord and Liddy of conspiracy, burglary and electronic eavesdropping.

Liddy was sentenced to 20-years in prison, but served a little over four years before he was paroled after receiving a commutation from President Jimmy Carter. McCord was sentenced to one to five years in that case and served about two months.